Team Hyuuga
by bhanesidhe
Summary: Posted for naruto100 [on LiveJournal] teen fic challenge, after the three years. No real spoilers to speak of, how rare for me. Team Hyuuga: Hanabi, Hinata & Neji [FanArt Available]


WARNINGS : I've been theorizing on a Three Year future-fic plot for a while, but since it focuses on Team 7, I wasn't sure where to fit this. So I posted it for naruto100 on LiveJournal teen fic challenge, after the three years. No real spoilers to speak of, how rare for me. There is an illustration for this fic; /ohshushDOTcom/fandom/images/superfluous-fluff/team-hyuugaDOThtml /

AUTHOR NOTES: Dedicated to my youngest sibling, tierluren, who readily complains I do not update enough. Super Huge thanks to Symon for stuffs.

DISCLAIMER : Kishimoto-sensei, Shonen Magazine and all sorts of people at VIZ own Naruto and the premises therein. My love for them all is what stems this creation, with entirely no other monetary gain.

**Team Hyuuga **

**T**eam **H**yuuga : **H**anabi, **H**inata & **N**eji;

Hanabi, age eleven, pulled her mouthpiece further forward, away from the tangle of black hair she kept pulled into a ponytail. Her eyes concentrated into angry pulsing veins, Byakuugan intently observing the lingering motions overhead.

"Team Hyuuga was in position when an enemy arose. We engaged it. The threat is currently being neutralized."

"The threat came from within or without the compound?" Shino's patient voice asked, buzzing against her ear canal.

"Outside," Hanabi confirmed; white eyes noticing the bulk early enough to take refuge in a far-off tree branch while the corpse dropped leaden to the ground. She smiled at the sight, two raven-haired figures landing gracefully in its wake.

"It had no chance to access the compound Shino-Sempai. Hinata-Neesan and Neji-Nissan dealt with it very quickly," she admitted proudly, watching the two nearly twin-like Jounin pace the area, preparing the body for erasure.

Hinata glanced up at the sound of her name, and smiled slightly at the sight of her little sister, clinging upside down to a far off branch speaking hurriedly into her mouthpiece.

"Hinata-sama," Neji called, reminding her of the task at hand. Byakuugan reengaging, she observed the unusual pooling of chakra flow, which, although dimming, was forming a pattern of attack, reminiscent of a blossom full-influx. She frowned; following Neji's prompting she placed a number of exploding tags in an open circle around the body, closing it off with a combined GenJutsus to mask the smoke and flames while the body ignited.

Hinata disengaged her Byakuugan and flicked her waist length hair over her shoulder in distaste, finding the remnants of this former S-class Nin's last attempts at self-preservation too horrible to watch. From across the divide she saw Neji watching with open eyes, Byakuugan active, full of fascination, while the trails of smokes and life force filtered through the air, a darkening funnel, like a backward tornado lifting out of sight. Hinata tip-toed her way around the circle, and poked Neji hard in the open wound in his left arm.

"Ow," he replied despondently, slowly tearing his eyes away from the secret light show overhead, Byakuugan disengaging.

Hinata glared pointedly at him while she sprayed his wound with disinfectant and wrapped a bandage around his forearm tighter than necessary.

"I'm not certain I should thank you for this service, Hinata-sama," he observed tentatively.

"Don't 'Hinata-Sama' me," she reprimanded him, tightening the bandage nearly enough to make him wince. Over time her voice has remained delicate but her words have become less so and her stammering has been removed. "What's the point of you being my body guard when you just throw yourself in without looking?"

Neji had the perfect response to Hinata's mothering tones, it was a half smile, mildly sneering and entirely unnerving. It always made her fluster with impatience, as it currently was.

"Had it even occurred to you to say 'look out' or 'behind you' or something other than dramatically flinging yourself upon the enemies weapons?"

"The thought occurred to me," Neji admitted slowly, Byakuugan reengaging, glancing over the landscape. "But then I wouldn't have your fine bedside manner to endure." After he was satisfied he pulled a mask from under his collar up to protect his mouth and nose. Hinata knew to follow suit, and observed the change in landscape from behind the GenJutsu they were maintaining.

Hinata ignored his baiting; observing exactly why it is their team had been assigned this entrance, this nearly unapproachable high altitude, unpredictable landscape. The metaphor, 'stuck between a rock and a hard place' had never been as appropriate she thought while grabbing hold of her cousin's wounded arm, guiding to leap away.

"Your impossible, Neji-Nissan," she started again from a branch below him. Hanabi was hanging beneath her. She glanced down and gave the girl an affirming nod indicating that both she and Neji were 'fine' and that she could continue her report.

It's taken years on their individual parts to make the Hyuuga Clan recognize their true assets as Shinobi. Only by then they'd realized the unlimited promise in mending the rift between Main and Branch houses, to incorporate the Hyuuga Clan's full potential. Essentially, their teaming up had been more symbolic than an actual measure of familial healing; it would take years to undo that sort of bred-in prejudice, but between Neji, Hinata and Hanabi, they have years to spare. It made them more than family; it made them a team, a united front, it made Neji seem nearly playful in his stubborn 'kill-all' sort of way, it made Hinata bold in her delicate and motherly way and it made Hanabi child-like and hopeful in a way her youth never provided. They were unstoppable... when they could get along.

Hanabi grinned up at the two, her sister and cousin growing more alike with age, like two sides of the same coin. No, Hanabi corrected her train of thought, coin was a bad analogy, a button was better, because there's the up side, hard and abrasive that faced the weather, that was Neji, turned to the forefront, formidable. And then there was Hinata, the same patterns, the same strength, the same potential only hidden, turned inward and obscured from sight. People had grown to confuse the two, the hair length being partly the reason, but the stance was most of it, Jounin, formidable, detached, cool, confident and capable. To complete the parable, if Hanabi was anything comparable than she was the thread, something intertwining, not intended in the original design but essential for its effectiveness.

"You are no good to me dead, do you hear me," Hinata stated frankly. Neji folded his arms, ignored her goading and focused his end of the Genjutsu on folding in on itself, smothering out the smoke and flames.

Hinata followed, reengaging her Byakuugan and forming seals to create a new temporary illusion to cover evidence of the enemies' remains.

Hanabi marveled at how easily Hinata could manipulate the most complicated GenJutsus and still make time to nag her cousin in the most docile tones.

"Next time you do something so nobly stupid, if you survive, well than you're getting a haircut."

Neji's Byakuugan disengaged, white eyes widening slightly, staring over at the two females grinning up at him. It took another Hyuuga to recognize the expression of dread in those monochrome eyes. He paused, collecting himself, silently daring her to try. "Who knew you could be so inherently evil, Hinata-sama."

"You," Hanabi interjected, steadfast in her 'Neji-Knows-Best' mindset he had indulged for too many years to oppose now. Hinata nodded, grinning widely so that her eyes squinted.

Neji sighed, "right, of course."

"The threat's been neutralized," Hanabi continued unabated. Hinata and Neji turned their earpieces to the right channel and listened for any further instructions. "We've a number of Illusions set in play to mask the scene but anyone within a hundred meters should be able to smell it. Is there anyway we can move along our deployment time?"

There is yet another extended thoughtful pause, and then Kiba's voice buzzed into the foreground.

"Hinata knows some effective Jutsus to obscure smells," he sheepishly reminded.

"She'd have to with you around," Konohamaru's voice broke in, followed by the sound of a Shino whacking him soundly in the back of his head, and a crash as he was sent sprawling to the floor. Some vague cursing followed briefly while Shino kindly reminded his Genin subordinate not to speak until spoken to.

"Chi-" Neji smirked, turning to face away. Hanabi stifled a laugh, while Hinata just shook her head in mock dismay.

Hanabi pulled her mic away from her face, and walked the branch around till she stood beside her senior. "Show me the hand seals and I'll do it."

Hinata smiled gratefully, "No, I'll do it."

"But you don't want to over exert--"

"No, Hanabi-san," Hinata smiled, performing the seals, placing her fingers to the tree bark before releasing her GenJutsu. Hanabi frowned slightly, expressing her concern when Hinata looked a bit tired from the effort. Hinata patted her arm gently, reminding her kindly, "We'll need you at full-strength when we have to pull the compound's GenJutsus apart."

Hanabi nodded, relieved to be reminded of her usefulness.

"Anything else constructive to report," a harder female voice cut in, reminding her of more immediate task.

Hanabi walked further along the branch, twisting to walk along the bottom of an extended branch. From her new angle, Hanabi could see within the pyre they'd created, measuring the threat. "Well, he looked sort of like a Venus fly trap tried to eat his head from his neck up. He's very dead though. There isn't enough left to pick him out of a Bingo-book. His ash is poisonous," she added as an afterthought, pulling a mask up from beneath her collar.

Neji stepped to the side, the noise slight but enough for both girls to look up to him for their next command. With his right hand alone, making gestures, he instructed them to head to higher ground, spread out, and find separate routes till they returned to their assigned position. Both girls' nodded silently before leaping away as commanded.

"s'at all?" Anko demanded, quietly.

"Affirmative," Hanabi said, landing momentarily on a branch before swinging herself higher, grinning at the view. Hinata and Neji were blurs on the horizon, leading the way.


End file.
